Ammunition is flying off store shelves

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By Associated Press

Sault Ste. Marie Evening News - Sault Ste. Marie, MI

By Associated Press

Posted Apr. 5, 2013 at 1:15 PM

By Associated Press

Posted Apr. 5, 2013 at 1:15 PM

Albany, N.Y.

Gun enthusiasts fearful of new weapon controls and alarmed by rumors of government hoarding are buying bullets practically by the bushel, making it hard for stores nationwide to keep shelves stocked and even putting a pinch on some local law enforcement departments.

In mid-January, two days after New York became the first state to toughen laws, hunter and target shooter Mark Smith spent $250 to stockpile ammunition, including $43 for a brick of 500 .22-caliber bullets, commonly used for target shooting and hunting small game.

“I had a feeling there was going to be a huge ammunition shortage,” said Smith, browsing shotgun shells this week at Dick’s Sporting Goods. “Especially .22s. It’s probably the most popular round out there.”

Likewise, the .223 ammunition used in popular semi-automatic rifles is hard to find.

The run started in November with President Barack Obama’s re-election, followed by the mass shooting in December of children in Newtown, Conn., which led the president to launch an effort to strengthen federal gun controls and several states to tighten their laws.

Connecticut on Thursday became the latest to crack down as the governor signed a measure — effective immediately — that adds more than 100 firearms to the state’s assault weapons ban, creates a dangerous weapon offender registry and institutes eligibility rules for ammunition purchases.

The nation’s 100 million firearms owners are driving the market for some 10 billion rounds annually, with demand and gun purchases both increasing the past several months, driven partly by fear that tougher laws will restrict the ability to buy firearms, said Lawrence Keane, whose National Shooting Sports Foundation is based in Newtown.

“There’s a concern by firearms owners that this administration will pursue bans on products, bans on ammunition. ... It’s not limited geographically to New York or anywhere else. It is nationwide,” he said.

Some government critics attributed shortages to federal purchases of bullets, accusing officials of trying to hoard a billion rounds and disarm the populace.

“Department of Homeland Security and the federal government itself is buying up ammunition and components at such a rate, it’s causing artificial shortage of supplies for the regular consumer,” said Jesse Alday, a state corrections officer who was buying a couple of boxes of primers at Hunter’s Haven, a strip-mall gun shop in the farming community of Rolesville, N.C., north of Raleigh.

“They’re buying it up as fast as they can, for reasons they’re not officially willing to admit or go into. ... They’re not willing to come up with any answers as to the reasons behind why they have enough ammunition on the U.S., on our own home soil, to wage a 25-year war,” he said. “That’s kind of strange.”

Page 2 of 2 - Keane, whose group includes manufacturers, said the reports of massive federal purchases were not true.

The government routinely buys products in bulk to reduce costs, and Homeland Security has said the latest purchases are no different.

Last year, the department put out bids for a total of about 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years. The rounds are to be used for training, routine weapons qualification exercises and normal duty by various department agencies.

The major U.S. manufacturers are running shifts around the clock to try to meet increased demand, Keane said. The foundation projected $1.5 billion from ammunition sales in 2011 and $2.8 billion from gun sales, totals that more than doubled in a decade.

Bruce Martindale, a champion marksman from upstate New York who normally uses .22-caliber rimfire ammunition, said it’s now hard for him to get anything, partly because online retailers are reluctant to ship to New York and risk running afoul of its new law.

“I can’t buy supplies anywhere,” he said. Like many competitors, he has cut back on practice but says he doesn’t see a public safety concern.